The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-04-15
SUICIDES OF GREAT MEN.
Thomas Todd Tells How Some Noted
Men Have Died.

thcmaS Todd Tells How Some Noted
Men Have Died.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, April 6.
Suicide seems to be ON the increase, and
the number of public men who have COM
mitted felo de Sc runs well up in the tens
Lieutenant Governor Reynolds suicide by
throwing himself down the elevator shaft in
the st. Louis custom house last week is 10
stranger than that of Preston King, who
drowned himself in the Hudson river by
leaping from ferryboat, or that of Felix
Mcconnell, of Mississippi, who, after a long
spree, cut his throat in the Charles hotel, in
Washington. It is still a question in the
minds OF many whether Edwin M. Stanton
did not die in the same way. it was stated
at the time that he died suddenly, but it was
whispered that the cause of his death was q
cut in his throat which was made by his own
hand. Stanton's messenger. who still works
i'll the war department, says that he aided in
the preparation of Stanton for burial, and
that there was no mark upon his throat
Gen Joe Lane, who was so noted during the
Kansas troubles, killed himself within a few
weeks of his 51st birthday Politics, it is
said, was the cause of his DEATH The uncle
of John d. White, who was the speaker of
the Twenty-seventh congress- committed
suicide at Richmond, KY, by cutting his
throat. Jesse Thomas, once senator from
Illinois, suicided n the same manner in 1850.
An Ohio congressman named Stone having
become a defaulter, committed suicide ia
1865, and went to the cemetery to die. He
was found lying dead upon the graves of his
children. John Ewing an Indiana congress
man, died in 1857 at Vincemes He was
found sitting in his chair, with sheet of
ri. oh, 81 L.
lying beside him, the words upon which
were evidently penned just before his DEATH
These words We're: sI
Here lies man who loved his friends
His God, his country and Vincennes.
Thomas Jefferson Rusk of Texas, com
mitted suicide after leaving the senate, awav
back in the thirties He shot himself and the
cause of his death has always been involved
in mystery. Congressman Hise of the Thirty
ninth congress, who was once United States
minister to Guatemala, committed suicide OIL
account of INSANITY resulting from overwork
Williamson R. w. Cobb. of Alabama left
the congress of the United States in 1861 to
become a member of tie Confederate con-
gress He died by pistol shot from his own
weapon, but whether the discharge of the
pistol was accidental or not is not known.
.*H
There were in the United States, at, riding
to the census of 1880, during the decade fol-
lowing the year 1870, over $500 suicides, of
whom 9, 104 were men and 497 were women
1t is thought, however. that this estimate is
much below the real number, and u life i'll
surance company kept the account OF the
suicides reported in the daily papers for
period of four years 1t was found that G2S3
suicides were reported from February, 1882
to February, 1886 Of this number All were
maids and ,315 bachelors Two thousand
and tifty-three were husbands and 59S
were wives; SO that the women i'll every
case seem to have had the best of it.
The suicides were the more numerous among
the farmers, and by the way, the insane
asylums contain larger proportion of far
mers than men of any other class.
***
Suicide was not considered crime among
many of the ancient nations, and Demos
themes, Themistocles and Hannibal ended
their lives i'll this way. Mark Antony killed
himself, and his sweetheart Cleopatra, put the
poisonous asp to her breast. The Bible tells
how Samson pulled down the house upon
himself in order that he might destroy his en-
eniies how King Saul inlpaled himself upon
his sword, and how Judas Iscariot in his re-
pentance committed suicide. Mithridates
killed himself rather than be prisoner
Cato, rather than live under the des-
potism of Caesar, stabbed himself. He
tainted, his wound was dressed, and he
was on the road to recovery. As soon
as he was able he tore off the bandages, let
out ais entrails, and expired. Brutus killed
himself, and Zeno, the founder of the Stoics,
hanged himself It the ripe old age Of 90. Di-
ogenes declared that the nearer to suicide the
nearer to virtue, and Lucretius and the epi-
culeans highly commended suicide.
SO
The epidemic nature of suicide is worthy of
remark, and it is curious thing that peculiar
suicides bring ON others of the same char
acter A few days after the Ashtabula
bridge disaster the engineer committed suicide
by shooting himself with pistol through the
mouth. Within several weeks there were
number of suicides of this same nature in diff
rerent parts of the United States, and the same
IS true of any peculiar form of suicide. In
1893 there were 800 suicides at Versailles, and
The disease became almost as epidemic as
though it had been the cholera, In 1906, peo-
pie killed themselves at Rouen. The French
have always been noted for felo de Sc.
THOMAS j. TODD.
Milk Instead of Stimulants.